"J-5-12-63" (1963) is an early and important acrylic and canvas collage on canvas by Conrad Marca-Relli (Boston, U.S. 1913 - 2000 Parma, Italy) was an American artist who belonged to the early generation of New York School Abstract Expressionist artists, represented by Jackson Pollock, Willem De Kooning, Franz Kline and Marca-Relli. It was after 1953 that the artist’s most famous and groundbreaking body of work developed, to which this work belongs: collages composed of cut and torn pieces of canvas, linen and burlap, at times over-painted with loose brushstrokes of paint. He cut the shapes for his collages quickly and intuitively, the kind of automatic action favored by his contemporaries, and a method that allows for accident and gesture. It is this body of work that garnered the artist his first museum retrospective in 1967 at the Whitney Museum of Art. "J-5-12-63" is unframed and off of stretchers, with overall condition as very good; minor overall staining typical for a work of this medium and age. This work is presently held in a private collection, Japan. Dimensions listed are for the image size, the overall work is larger on canvas backing (please see images). Please see images and contact Specialist directly with questions or requests.

Conrad Marca-Relli was the child of Italian immigrants born in Boston in 1911, and was primarily a self-taught artist. After finishing high school in 1930, he studied for a year at the Cooper Union. He became a pioneer and member of the New York School’s first generation of what would come to be called Abstract Expressionism. During the late 1940s and early 1950s, Marca-Relli was actively involved in the avant-garde art world in New York and helped to found the now infamous artists’ group the “Eighth Street Club,” whose members included Willem de Kooning, Franz Kline, and Jack Tworkov. His works have been subject of top Museum and gallery shows from the 1950's through 2012 and the work of the artist is held in the Permanent Collections of:
Guggenheim Museum, New York and Bilbao.
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Museum of Modern Art, New York
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.
High Museum of Art, Atlanta,
Museu d'Art Contemporani MACBA, Barcelona
Sammlung Reinhard Onnasch, Berlin
Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York
The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago
Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland
Denver Art Museum, Denver
Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco
Seattle Art Museum, Seattle
Fondazione Peggy Guggenheim, Venice
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.